The first buses carrying passengers from a cruise ship disabled for days at sea are pulling away to take them to next stop on their journey.
The cruise ship terminal in Mobile, Ala., was raucous late Thursday as the first of some 3,000 passengers streamed off the Carnival Triumph, a cruise ship passengers compared to a shanty town due to reports of vile conditions onboard.
Pulled by a tugboat at a maddeningly slow pace, the ship finally arrived in the port at about 9:15 p.m. Central time Thursday after taking about six grueling hours to be towed from the mouth of Mobile Bay some 30 miles to the port.
Anxious passengers were lining the decks waving, cheering loudly and whistling to those on shore, but had hours to wait before they can walk on solid ground.
Earlier, Terry Thornton, a senior vice president of marketing, said passengers will be disembarked shortly after the vessel arrives. Even though the ship has been fully cleared by customs and Border Patrol, the process could still take four to five hours as there is only one functioning elevator on the ship.
He said warm food, blankets, and cellphones await passengers, and that the ship would be taken Friday to a nearby shipyard to be assessed.
Once off the ship, most passengers will head on another journey, this time via bus. Carnival said the 3,143 passengers and 1,086-person crew had the option of a seven-hour bus ride to the Texas cities of Galveston or Houston or a two-hour trip to New Orleans. The company said it had booked 1,500 hotel rooms in the Louisiana city, and passengers staying there would be flown Friday to Houston.
“I can’t imagine being on that ship this morning and then getting on a bus,” said Kirk Hill, whose 30-year-old daughter, Kalin Christine Hill, is on the cruise. “If I hit land in Mobile, you’d have a hard time getting me on a bus.”
Carnival CEO Gerry Cahill apologized at a news conference late Thursday.
“I appreciate the patience of our guests and their ability to cope with the situation. And I’d like to reiterate the apology I made earlier. I know the conditions on board were every poor,” he said. “We pride ourselves on providing our guests with a great vacation experience, and clearly we failed in this particular case.”
On Thursday night, dozens of chartered buses — with markings from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — had gathered in Mobile. Carnival said 100 buses had been reserved and that it will cover transportation costs.
The cruise was initially supposed to arrive sometime Thursday afternoon, but the company later pushed the expected time to sometime between 8 and 11 p.m. The latest problem is a broken towline that is creating a new delay, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
Thelbert Lanier was waiting at the port for his wife, who texted him early Thursday.
“Room smells like an outhouse. Cold water only, toilets haven’t work in 3 1/2 days. Happy Valentines Day!!! I love u & wish I was there,” she said in …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News